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What to do with drone larvae?

Got some culled drone brood? Don't discard them -- I learned they can be used creatively in cooking. Jeff, the author of this video, wrote: "Cooking Hachinoko Fritters from unwanted drone comb from bee hives. Tastes great." For the recipe, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EecacV6mFuc

Re: What to do with drone larvae?

Apparently "Hachinoko" is eaten in Japan, but I do not know how the Japanese use it in their cuisine. I would imagine brood eaten raw might not be especially yummy -- probably rather bland. The fritter recipe had drone larvae and pupae (mostly white), about the same volume of fresh sweet corn kernels, shallot, green onion, minced garlic, egg, flour, salt, and a homemade chile sauce. The brood was there as a protein source, but I imagine the sweet corn, onion, garlic, and chile sauce provided the dominant flavors.

Re: What to do with drone larvae?

Could be that cooking mellows the flavor -- think of raw vs. cooked onion or garlic. Also a bitter flavor might fit in okay with the other flavors in the fritter. But I'm just guessing here, since I haven't tried it.

Re: What to do with drone larvae?

Mmmmmm, Ray, sounds like that was an "interesting" experience!

Someone posted to this thread (but for some reason the post is not showing up here) that they use bee pupae for fishing bait. That's not exactly a recipe, I suppose, unless you want to count it as an ingredient required to catch a nice supper. But it is a good use for pupae that might otherwise be discarded.

I look forward, MichaBees, to hear about your cooking experiment. I am very curious to learn if cooking changes the flavor of the brood vs. raw.

Last edited by DeeAnna; 06-21-2011 at 01:17 PM.
Reason: added last para